Paul O'Rorke's documentation for ITAS 278 Internet Server Management II

Assignment #2 - AMANDA (Individual Assignment)

AMANDA, the Advanced Maryland Automated Network Disk Archiver, is a public domain utility developed at the University of Maryland. For more information (and a good read) see:

http://www.amanda.org/ for the official AMANDA site.
http://www.backupcentral.com/amanda.html for a very good introduction to AMANDA

Hardware and software used:

Software:

Red Hat Fedora Core 2 - host operating system for virtual machines.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL3) - guest operating system for AMANDA installation (Tape Host)).
amanda-client-2.4.4p2-3
amanda-devel-2.4.4p2-3
amanda-server-2.4.4p2-3
amanda-2.4.4p2-3

Hardware (Server):

AMD Athalon XP 2500 CPU
1024MB DDR400 RAM
ASUS A7N8X Delux mother board
200GB SATA dard drive space (1x80GB, 1x 120GB))
3com 10/100 ethernet adaptor
nvidia 10/100 ethernet adaptor
NVIDIA 5200FX 256MB video card

Hardware (Client):

AMD Athalon XP 2500 CPU
1024MB DDR400 RAM
ASUS A7N8X Delux mother board
200GB SATA hard drive space (1x80GB, 1x 120GB))
3com 10/100 ethernet adaptor
nvidia 10/100 ethernet adaptor
NVIDIA 5200FX 256MB video card

Hardware (Client):

Intel Celeron 2400Mhz CPU
512MB DDR400 RAM
ASUS P4C900 mother board
40GB ATA hard drive
10/100 ethernet adaptor
ATI Radeon 7000 64MB video card

Resources:

278T Assignment 2 - AMANDA.doc - document outlining requirements for this assignment.
AMANDA-HOWTO-Collection.pdf Huge Document!
http://www.backupcentral.com/amanda.html A very nice starting point for reading.

1.Configure AMANDA to perform automated backups of your own Linux server, and at least one other Linux host. (This could be your group server, another student machine, or a VMWare-hosted machine).

The first thing I found was that trying to run /usr/sbin/amcheck produced the following error:

-bash-2.05b$ /usr/sbin/amdump could not open conf file "/etc/amanda/amanda.conf": No such file or directory amgetconf: errors processing config file "/etc/amanda/amanda.conf"
-bash-2.05b$

The next thing to try (thanks Red...) was:

-bash-2.05b$ /usr/sbin/amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
ERROR: tape list /etc/amanda/DailySet1/tapelist: parse error
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639792 KB disk space available, that's plenty
ERROR: /dev/null: rewinding tape: Inappropriate ioctl for device
(expecting a new tape)
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/localhost: does not exist
Server check took 30.110 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
WARNING: localhost: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 1 host checked in 30.002 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
-bash-2.05b$

There was no such file tapelist only disklist. To create a tapelist file run
-bash-2.05b$ /usr/sbin/amlabel
. This requires a couple of arguments:
Usage: /usr/sbin/amlabel [-f] <conf> <label> [slot<slot-number>]
<conf> represents the configuration, in my case it was DailySet1 (default from the RedHat installaion) and the <label> is specified in amanda.conf. , in my case "^DailySet1[0-9][0-9]*$" I had to create a directory to represent the tape and give amanda write permission. I used /fake_tape and added it to the amanda.conf file:
tapedev "/fake_tape" # the no-rewind tape device to be used. The next attempt at /usr/sbin/amcheck DailySet1 produced a similar error with the exception that fake_tape now has the Inappropriate ioctl for device problem. The amanda man page stated that the tape type must be specified in amanda.conf so the following lines were added or changed:
tapetype hard-disk

define tapettype hard-disk {
comment "Dump onto hard disk"
length 2048 mbytes #specify 2GB
}

tapedev "file:/fake_tape" # the no-rewind tape device to be used
changed /etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist from localhost /etc comp-root-tar to linux-snort.itas.ca /etc comp-root-tar
Running amcheck now produces:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
ERROR: tape list /etc/amanda/DailySet1/tapelist: parse error
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639540 KB disk space available, that's plenty
ERROR: /fake_tape/data/: No such file or directory
ERROR: /fake_tape/data/: No such file or directory
ERROR: file:/fake_tape: rewinding tape: Input/output error
       (expecting a new tape)
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
Server check took 0.238 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
WARNING: linux-snort.itas.ca: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 1 host checked in 30.243 seconds, 1 problem found
(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
bash-2.05b$
This prompted me to
bash-2.05b$ touch /etc/amanda/DailySet1/tapelist
bash-2.05b$ mkdir /fake_tape/data/
bash-2.05b$
The next step was to run amlabel DailySet1 which resulted in a sucessfull run of amlabel. Then amcheck gave:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4640508 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
Server check took 0.107 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
WARNING: linux-snort.itas.ca: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 1 host checked in 30.004 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$>
then I modded xinetd.d files as follows:
[root@linux-snort /]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/amandaidx
and set:
disable = no
then:
[root@linux-snort /]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/amidxtape
and set:
disable = no

[root@linux-snort /]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/amanda
and set:
disable = no
after restarting the xinetd service running amcheck gave:
[root@linux-snort /]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/ambash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4640416 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
Server check took 0.299 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
WARNING: linux-snort.itas.ca: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 1 host checked in 30.359 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$andaidx
Edit [root@linux-snort /]# vi /var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts adding:
linux-snort.itas.ca amanda
linux-snort.itas.ca root
to allow linux-snort.itas.ca to access files on this host for retrieval.   Add a similar entry to the same file on each client you wish to allow AMANDA access to.
Now running amcheck gives:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4640368 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
Server check took 0.003 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
ERROR: linux-snort.itas.ca: [ip address 142.25.97.100 is not in the ip list for linux-snort]
Client check: 1 host checked in 0.105 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$
Modifying /etc/hosts to include linux-snort.itas.ca and linux-snort helped.   Again running amcheck:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4640056 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
Server check took 0.006 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
ERROR: linux-snort.itas.ca: [Can't open exclude file '/usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar': No such file or directory]
Client check: 1 host checked in 0.379 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$
make the directory and file:
[root@linux-snort /]# mkdir /usr/local/lib/amanda
[root@linux-snort /]# touch /usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar
[root@linux-snort /]# chown amanda:disk /usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar
[root@linux-snort /]# ls -l /usr/local/lib/amanda/
total 0
-rw-r--r--      1   amanda     disk         0 Jan 19 16:58 exclude.gtar

and run amcheck again:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4640000 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo: does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
Server check took 0.019 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 0.335 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
bash-2.05b$
....so :
[root@linux-snort /]# mkdir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo
[root@linux-snort /]# mkdir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca
[root@linux-snort /]# chown amanda:disk /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo
[root@linux-snort /]# chown amanda:disk /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca
[root@linux-snort /]#
and run amcheck again:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639952 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/linux-snort.itas.ca: does not exist
NOTE: index dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca/_etc: does not exist
Server check took 0.020 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 0.429 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
bash-2.05b$
....so :
bash-2.05b$ mkdir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/linux-snort.itas.ca
bash-2.05b$ mkdir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/linux-snort.itas.ca/_etc
bash-2.05b$
and run amcheck again:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639912 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
NOTE: info dir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/linux-snort.itas.ca/_etc: does not exist
Server check took 0.309 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 1.047 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
bash-2.05b$
....so :
bash-2.05b$ mkdir /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/linux-snort.itas.ca/_etc
bash-2.05b$
and run amcheck again:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1 Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639892 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
WARNING: info file /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/linux-snort.itas.ca/_etc/info: does not exist
Server check took 0.006 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 10.364 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
bash-2.05b$
....so :
bash-2.05b$ touch /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/linux-snort.itas.ca/_etc/info bash-2.05b$
and run amcheck again:
bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639868 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
Server check took 0.568 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 0.489 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
bash-2.05b$
AT LAST!!!!!!
Now it's time to check it out with amdump DailySet1......
bash-2.05b$ amd DailySet1
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$
Sounds good to me....
amcheck still gives:

bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639604 KB disk space available, that's plenty
ERROR: cannot overwrite active tape DailySet100
(expecting a new tape)
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Server check took 0.005 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 0.157 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$

Running amdump now produces the following:

*** A TAPE ERROR OCCURRED: [cannot overwrite active tape DailySet100].
Some dumps may have been left in the holding disk.
Run amflush to flush them to tape.
The next tape Amanda expects to use is: a new tape.
Changing the tapecycle in amanda.conf to 1 solved the probelem. According to the AMANDA FAQ
Q: Why does amcheck say ?cannot overwrite active tape??
A: Because, if you configure AMANDA to use N tapes, by setting tapecycle to N in amanda.conf, before AMANDA overwrites a tape, it must write to at least other N-1 tapes. Of course, AMANDA will always refuse to overwrite a tape marked for `noreuse' with amadmin. Furthermore, such tapes are not counted when AMANDA computes `N-1' tapes. If, for some reason, you want to tell AMANDA to overwrite a particular tape, regardless of its position in the cycle, use amrmtape. This command will remove this tape from the tapelist file, that is used to manage the tape cycle, and will delete information about backups stored in that tape from the AMANDA database.
To add another Linux machine to be backed up modify the /etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist entry to reflect the new service
Mod the respective clients to enable their xinetd daemons to start the communications

[root@ororkep root]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/amanda
[root@ororkep root]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/amandaidx
[root@ororkep root]# vi /etc/xinetd.d/amidxtape
[root@ororkep root]#
in each file set:

       disable       = no

Directories to make:

bash-2.05b$
bash-2.05b$ mkdir -p /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/paulororke.net/_etc
bash-2.05b$ mkdir -p /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/ororkep.itas.ca/_etc
bash-2.05b$ mkdir -p /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/paulororke.net/_etc
bash-2.05b$ mkdir -p /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/index/ororkep.itas.ca/_etc
The -p means make parent directories if needed. Nice time saver there.

Files to touch:

bash-2.05b$ touch /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/paulororke.net/_etc/info
bash-2.05b$ touch /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/ororkep.itas.ca/_etc/info

Modified paulororke.net/etc/hostsand ororkep.itas.ca/etc/hosts adding a line linux-snort.itas.ca     42.25.97.100

restarted xinetd on both clients

now amcheck gives:

bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4639016 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
Server check took 0.003 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
ERROR: ororkep.itas.ca: [Can't open exclude file '/usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar': No such file or directory]
WARNING: paulororke.net: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 3 hosts checked in 30.578 seconds, 2 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$

On ororkep.itas.ca the following was done:

[root@ororkep root]# touch /usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar
touch: cannot touch `/usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar': No such file or directory
[root@ororkep root]# ls /usr/local/lib
lib libexec
[root@ororkep root]# ls /usr/local/lib
[root@ororkep root]# ls /usr/local/lib/
[root@ororkep root]# su amanda
bash-2.05b$ mkdir /usr/local/lib/amanda
mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/local/lib/amanda': Permission denied
bash-2.05b$ exit
[root@ororkep root]# mkdir /usr/local/lib/amanda
[root@ororkep root]# chown -R amanda:disk /usr/local/lib/amanda/
[root@ororkep root]# su amanda
bash-2.05b$ touch /usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar
bash-2.05b$

There seems to be a problem accessing a client outside the ITAS network. PLNET could be filtering the ports. Ethereal reports a DNS lookup attempt but gets network unreachable for paulororke.net so further investigation of the PLNET firewall or a change of port for AMANDA may be required. The short term fix is to remove paulororke.net form the disklist until this issue is resolved.
amcheck now produces:

bash-2.05b$ amcheck DailySet1
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /var/tmp: 4638912 KB disk space available, that's plenty
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet100 label ok
Server check took 0.801 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 2 hosts checked in 0.908 seconds, 0 problems found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p1)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
bash-2.05b$

And finnally amdump DailySet1 is successfull sending the following mail message:

These dumps were to tape DailySet100.
The next tape Amanda expects to use is: DailySet100.

STATISTICS:
  Total     Full    Daily
-------- -------- --------
Estimate Time (hrs:min) 0:00
Run Time (hrs:min) 0:00
Dump Time (hrs:min) 0:00 0:00 0:00
Output Size (meg) 19.4 19.4 0.0
Original Size (meg) 96.3 96.3 0.0
Avg Compressed Size (%) 20.1 20.1 --
Filesystems Dumped 2 2 0
Avg Dump Rate (k/s) 1216.5 1216.5 --

Tape Time (hrs:min) 0:00 0:00 0:00
Tape Size (meg) 19.4 19.4 0.0
Tape Used (%) 1.0 1.0 0.0
Filesystems Taped 2 2 0
Avg Tp Write Rate (k/s) 64161.8 64161.8 --

USAGE BY TAPE:
Label Time Size % Nb
DailySet100 0:00 19.4 1.0 2

NOTES:
planner: Adding new disk ororkep.itas.ca:/etc.
taper: tape DailySet100 kb 19936 fm 2 [OK]

DUMP SUMMARY:
DUMPER STATS TAPER STATS
HOSTNAME DISK L ORIG-KB OUT-KB COMP% MMM:SS KB/s MMM:SS KB/s
-------------------------- --------------------------------- ------------
linux-snort. /etc 0 19740 4037 20.5 0:021743.1 0:0075441.0
ororkep.itas /etc 0 78890 15789 20.0 0:141129.2 0:0061573.1

(brought to you by Amanda version 2.4.4p1)

2.Configure a DLE (Disk List Entry) to back up files in the directory /myfiles located on both host machines. Place 10-20 files (totalling100MB+) in each of these directories. Include 4-5 files with the file extensions .tmp, .log, & .bak. Record the md5 checksums and file creation & modification dates of all files to be backed up.

Create the files and directory:

# mkdir /myflies
# dd if=/dev/hdg2 of=50kbfile.avi bs=1024 count=50

repeated the last line for a variety of filenames and sizes by changing the value of of and count
To get the file creation and modification dates and md5checksums
# ls -lc >> filesToBackup.txt
# md5sum * >> filesToBackup.txt
Modify /etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist to reflect the desired backup (in my case change /etc to /myfiles
Run amdump DailySet1 again. This should now produce a set of files in /fake_tape like the following:

[root@linux-snort fake_tape]# ls -l data/
total 24752
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 10 Jan 24 15:29 00000-DailySet100
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 32768 Jan 24 15:29 00000.DailySet100
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 12 Jan 24 15:30 00001-ororkep.itas.ca._myfiles.0
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 12615680 Jan 24 15:30 00001.ororkep.itas.ca._myfiles.0
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 12 Jan 24 15:30 00002-linux-snort.itas.ca._myfiles.0
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 12615680 Jan 24 15:30 00002.linux-snort.itas.ca._myfiles.0
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 10 Jan 24 15:30 00003-TAPEEND
-rw------- 1 amanda disk 32768 Jan 24 15:30 00003.TAPEEND

Now to test the backup.
Removing all the files from /myfiles then running amrestore /fake_tape/data/00002.linux-snort.itas.ca._myfiles.0 from within the directory to be restored. AMANDA will put a tar file in the directory from which amrestore was run. This tar file then needs to be extracted in order to see all the restored files.

3. Configure AMANDA to backup to a set of files located in /fake_tape. Normally we would backup to a tape drive, but backups to files are a 1st step toward backing up to something like a CDRW device. Hint: AMANDA treats /fake_tape as a real tape mounted on a tape drive.
See the obove section where I set the following:
tapetype hard-disk

define tapettype hard-disk {
comment "Dump onto hard disk"
length 2048 mbytes #specify 2GB
}

tapedev "file:/fake_tape" # the no-rewind tape device to be used

4. Configure AMANDA to exclude any tmp, log, and bak files from being backed up.
Essentially this only envolves editing the /usr/local/lib/amanda/exclude.gtar to include the file types to exclude files matching the extensions listed. The entire file looks like this:

from amanda.conf
# exclude - specify files and directories to be excluded from the dump.
#          Useful with gnutar only; silently ignored by dump and samba.
#          Valid values are:
#          "pattern" - a shell glob pattern defining which files
#          to exclude.
#           gnutar gets --exclude="pattern"
#          list "filename" - a file (on the client!) containing patterns
#           re's (1 per line) defining which files to
#          exclude.
#          gnutar gets --exclude-from="filename"
#       Note that the `full pathname' of a file within its
#       filesystem starts with `./', because of the way amanda runs
#       gnutar: `tar -C $mountpoint -cf - --lots-of-options .' (note
#       the final dot!) Thus, if you're backing up `/usr' with a
#       diskfile entry like ``host /usr gnutar-root', but you don't
#       want to backup /usr/tmp, your exclude list should contain
#       the pattern `./tmp', as this is relative to the `/usr' above.
#       Please refer to the man-page of gnutar for more information.
#       Default: include all files

./*.tmp
./*.log
./*.bak

5. Implement a holding disk ?holdingdisk1? located in /var/amanda/. Limit the capacity of the holding disk to 700+MB (the capacity of one CDRW). Check the output of amcheck and ensure there are no errors in your AMANDA configuration.
Modify /etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf to reflect the following:
holdingdisk holdingdisk1 {
comment "main holding disk"
directory "/var/amanda" # where the holding disk is
use 700 Mb # how much space can we use on it
}

6. Configure the cron daemon to schedule the AMANDA sessions automatically. AMANDA should generate an email report mailed to your account indicating the success/failure of the backup session.
Edit /etc/crontab adding the following (taken from /etc/amanda/crontab.sample):
0 16 * * 1-5 /usr/sbin/amcheck -m DailySet1
45 0 * * 2-6 /usr/sbin/amdump DailySet1
my /etc/crontab looks like this:
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

05 19 * * 1-5 amanda /usr/sbin/amcheck -m DailySet1
07 19 * * 2-6 amanda /usr/sbin/amdump DailySet1

Additional usefull stuff:
Burning to CD/DVD
Backing up Windows boxes using samba and amanda